Authors:

Collaboration:

Biofluid and biomimic research center

Cacti can survive in extremely dry environment thanks to their unique water
collecting ability. In addition to the spine which is one of the water
collection systems, cactus stem actually plays an important role for
harvesting and storing the absorbed water. In this study, the wetting
property of cactus stem inspired us to develop a novel water harvester with
a superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic double structure. Since the cactus stem
is comprised of superhydrophobic cuticular surface and superhydrophilic
mucilage cells, it can effectively absorb water and reduce evaporation of
the absorbed water. In addition, mucilage cells can release the absorbed
water to photosynthetic cells under drought stress. Moreover, a mature stem
has microcracks on its surface, which enable for water to be rapidly
absorbed into the mucilage cells. Inspired by these characteristics of
cactus stem, the biomimetic water harvester has two distinct functions;
effective water-absorption with directional water transport and on-demand
water-releasing function. The developed water harvester would be utilized
for developing an effective 3D plant-inspired water collector.

*This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2017R1A2B3005415).